A Clayton County mother says a teenage boy shook her hand when he and a friend came to her house to visit her daughters Saturday night.
Minutes later, that same teenager allegedly shot and killed her 16-year-old daughter, V’ondra Olivaria.
“My baby was in her room thinking she was safe from the harmful stuff outside,” Yolanda Rincon told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday. “But the devil let loose in this house.”
After hearing a single gunshot, Rincon said she ran out of her own room and saw 17-year-old Brandon Henry Williams holding a gun, a look of panic on his face.
“He scared me because I didn’t know if he was going to try to hurt us,” Rincon said.
Neither Rincon nor investigators believe Williams intended to shoot V’ondra. But Williams and 20-year-old Justin Vitto, who brought Williams to the home, allegedly ran away, leaving Rincon at her daughter’s side for what would be her final breaths.
“I could tell by looking at her it wasn’t good,” said Rincon, a mother of four.
A few hours later, a police officer told Rincon her second oldest child was dead. As she worried Monday night how she will pay for a funeral, Rincon remembered a bubbly, caring teenager who loved posting pictures on Instagram and was in the 11th grade at North Clayton High School. And in an instant, she was gone.
“He took my daughter’s life and he took his own life,” Rincon said. “Two lives gone for nothing.”
Sunday night, Williams was arrested, Officer Charlene Watson-Fraser with Clayton County police said. Williams, of Jonesboro, was charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct, possession of a handgun by a person under 18, obstruction and criminal trespassing and booked into the Clayton County jail. He was being held without bond Tuesday night.
Late Monday night, Vitto was arrested and charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, jail records show. He was also being held Tuesday without bond.
Many of V’ondra’s classmates learned of her death Monday, and North Clayton Principal Derrick Dalton informed parents in a letter.
“We are profoundly saddened by her death,” Dalton wrote.
Grief counselors were at the school Monday, Dalton said.
Funeral arrangements have not been finalized for V’ondra. Her mother hopes to raise enough money to bury her daughter in Maryland, the family’s home state.
Anyone wishing to make a donation for the family’s expenses can go to any Wells Fargo branch and donate to the V’ondra Olivaria Memorial Fund.
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